identity
by ZombiePinecone
Summary: Arwen's sister, Arheryn disappears while traveling with her family. While she is gone, she slowly becomes something else. In a world that is completely different from the world she knew, how does she find her true identity? Tenth walker story. Please read


Disclaimer: Okay, I'm not J.R.R. Tolkien. Please don't sue me. I don't own any of these characters.

Thank you to StarLight9 for helping with the elvish stuff!

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Arwen and Aragorn walked hand in hand around the gardens of Rivendell. They talked there every night after supper, and admired the beauty of the place they were in. That night at dinner, they received news that Arwen's brothers, Elladan and Elrohir had just managed to escape from an orc raid gone sour. Elrohir's leg was injured, but Elladan was able to retreat unharmed. The messenger elf had also reported that they were on their way back, to return within two or three days. The couple was currently discussing the topic in elvish, after admiring the Gwaloth that grew in a special section of the garden tended to by Elrond himself.

"I hope your brothers are well. This is the worst I've seen your father look. That's your mother _and _your two brothers that have suffered or gone missing. Everyone but you and you father, right?"

Arwen breathed in sadly, and looked away.

"What I am about to confide in your, Aragorn, must never leave this garden." Aragorn nodded and Arwen continued, "Arheryn was my sister, born nineteen years after I. When she had just turned forty-seven, only a young girl, our parents and my siblings and I traveled to Lórien to visit my grandmother, Galadriel. We took what my parents called 'the scenic route' and traveled south to the west of the Misty Mountains, until we turned east at the Gap of Rohan. Our course then turned north Past Fangorn Forest in into Lórien. Unfortunately, at the edge of Fangorn, Arheryn was lost."

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Celebrian and her husband Elrond encouraged their children to go picking berries at the edge of the forest while they discussed deep elven matters that their children knew nothing of.

Their children walked away, chatting happily, each carrying a small basket for the berries. The green grass tickled their toes as they walked right to the edge of the forest out of their parent's sight. They finally found a few small bushes with small, ripe berries.

For almost an hour, the children picked the berries (and ate some) and decided to explore the area.

"Don't go into the forest," warned Elladan, pointing to a rather forbidding row of tall, dark trees.

"Yes, Naneth will not be pleased if we do," cautioned his twin, Elrohir. Arwen, their younger sister nodded solemnly and motioned for Arheryn to follow her. The siblings played a while longer in a sunny field of yellow flowers and decided to look for more berries so they could completely fill their tiny woven baskets. They decided they would split up- Elladan would search with Arwen, Elrohir with Arheryn.

After searching together for a few minutes, Elrohir took his sister aside and said to her,

"Arheryn, I am going to leave you for a moment, I want to search that area over there, by that large boulder. Take this whistle," and he pulled out an intricately designed silver whistle and placed it gently into her outstretched hand, "And blow into it. No matter how far away I am from you, its song will always reach my ear." He turned on his heel and walked away, and Arheryn tossed the whistle into her basket.

All alone, Arheryn traveled towards the green, thick Fangorn Forest. It seemed to stir. Arheryn briefly wondered what stirred, and decided that she'd go in the forest- not too far in, just enough so she'd see Elrohir making his way back from the jagged boulder he was near. She gripped her basket tightly, and stepped in the dark forest.

The tallest trees Arheryn had ever seen seemed to look down at her wondering who she was and what she was doing in their tranquil home. Arheryn looked behind her to the field and breathed out calmly and walked deeper inside. Suddenly, she saw something strange. It looked like a smaller tree, one younger than the other ones. The smaller tree looked like it had fruit growing, and Arheryn stood on the tips of her toes to get a better look.

Yes! The tree had large, purple berries growing from it. She absentmindedly began picking them, thinking about how surprised Elrohir would be when he saw all the berries she'd found, when she felt a strange tickling sensation around her ankles. Arheryn ignored the sensation and kept picking, until it seemed to crawl up her legs to her knees, then past her knees to her thighs. At that point, it became to bothersome to ignore and Arheryn looked down and gasped.

Something _had_ been snaking up her legs, but it wasn't just a sensation, it was tree roots from the tall tree next to the small one she was picking from. Heart pounding, Arheryn tried to pull her legs away from the roots, but she couldn't move. She turned her head around and looked to see if Elrohir was coming, but she couldn't see him. As Arheryn tried to think of a way she could get help, the roots began pulling her down into the earth- and the roots had snaked up to her torso. Suddenly, she remembered- the whistle!

A wave of relief swept over her, she was saved! She would blow in the whistle, and Elrohir would get her out of this mess. The young elf reached into the basket where she placed it a few minutes before and put it to her soft pink lips. Arheryn was about to blow, when she lost her balance, and fumbled the whistle. In slow motion, it sailed through the air and landed two meters away.

Arheryn's last hopes were dashed and there was only one thing she could do- scream.

"MUINDOR! HELP! ELROHIR! ELLETH! ADA!"

She waited hopefully for a moment and listened. Silence. Arheryn's silver eyes shined with tears. The roots had wrapped around her shoulders, and she was thigh deep in the ground. _What will happen to me? _She thought, _What if I sink into the ground, never to be seen or heard from again forever?_

Arheryn began weeping. She would never see her family ever again, and Elrohir would be in trouble when their parents found out that Arheryn was lost. They would look for her, only they would look above the ground for her, and she would never be found again. She looked down and before she knew it, the dirt came up to her neck, her black hair fanned out on the forest floor. She looked around her, resigned to her fate below the surface of the earth. Finally, her head went under the dirt and all was pitch black.

She heard footsteps somewhere above her head and a voice calling out her name. It was Elrohir. The footsteps came closer to where she was, her brother must have tracked her footprints. The last thing that poor Arheryn heard before she passed out of existence was Elrohir's grief-stricken voice:

"The whistle. Arheryn? ARHERYN!"

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And so she lay there for two thousand, nine hundred, fifty-eight years, in the soil of the Fangorn Forest. Arheryn forgot everything- her name, her life, her family. She grew used to being underground and had something new to preoccupy her. Creaky, moaning voices filled up the empty space, and soon she learned the language. In fact, she spoke back to them. They were old and wise voices. The young elf learned many things from them.

She grew, there under the earth, from young elf child, to elf-maiden. Years and years passed, Arheryn could feel when the frosts came and when they went. She ate like the trees did and sucked in water and nutrients and ate the occasional worm when she could find one.

But she was mistaken in the thought that she would stay forgotten, underground for eternity. One day, she heard a familiar voice from underneath the soil. It was the last voice she ever heard as Arheryn.


End file.
